(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to non-fried, oil-free instant cooking dry noodles, and more particularly it pertains to noodles of this type having elongated cord-like shape, which are free of stickiness and agglutination to each other and easily releasable from entanglement during the manufacturing process, whose surfaces are smooth with no blister-like bubble formations and which can be converted to satisfactory boiled condition in a very short period of time by immersion in hot water. The present invention further concerns a method for manufacturing such dry noodles.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Known methods for manufacturing non-fried dry instant cooking noodles are such that one of them comprises the steps of adding water to starch components consisting mainly of wheat flour, uniformly distributing the added water throughout the starch components by kneading, subjecting the resulting mixture to rolling to provide a long web of raw starting materials, then cutting this web by a wave-shaped cutter blade into individual lengthy cord-like raw noodles, thereafter subjecting these noodles to steaming to effect .alpha.-conversion of the starch components, and then drying the resulting noodles. Another one of the known methods comprises extruding the above-said mixture under pressure to provide a long web of raw starting material, and then subjecting this web to same steps as mentioned above. Still another one of the known methods comprises directly extruding said mixture through a die to provide individual elongated cord-like raw noodles, thereafter subjecting these noodles to the steps mentioned above. These known methods have the disadvantages and inconveniences such that the elongated individual cord-like raw noodles obtained are not of a straight form but they are waved or crimped in configuration, and that these noodles become swollen during the step of steaming, causing the individual noodles to stick to each other, so that .alpha.-conversion of the starch components does not take place uniformly throughout the noodles, which in turn leads to the inconvenience that the final dry product noodles would not be uniformly rendered to the boiled or cooked state when immersed in hot water, thus failing to give such satisfactory feel, sense and taste as would be expected of cooked or boiled noodles. Especially, those product dry noodles which are manufactured by extrusion of said mixture into a web of starting material, and those product dry noodles which are manufactured by direct extrusion of said mixture into individual cord-like noodles, both invariably experience the undesirable consequence that the mixture is subjected to excessive kneading during the extrusion, so that the texture of the raw material is rendered excessively dense, lowering the ability of the product dry noodles to be transformed to satisfactory cooked or boiled state when immersed in hot water for a short period of time, and the sense, feel and taste, including what is called "al dente" noted at the time these noodles are eaten become very poor. It is to be understood that the description used hereinafter for evaluation of the cooked noodles include this "al dente".
Also, there is known a method proposed to improve the above-said disadvantages and inconveniences of the prior art, which comprises mixing starch components which consist mainly of wheat flour with an emulsion of an oil-in-water phase edible oil, subjecting the resulting raw mixture to steaming, and thereafter drying same. The individual pieces of raw noodles produced according to this known method are such that said edible oil is scattered non-uniformly on the surfaces of the individual noodles, and accordingly it is not possible to completely eliminate the mutual sticking between individual cord-like noodles which takes place during the step of steaming, so that there is required an additional step of releasing the mutually contacting noodles apart from each other. Moreover, when the product dry noodles are subjected to cooking by immersion in hot water, there still remains a sense and feel of wheat flour when eaten, which are caused by the inevitable non-uniform .alpha.-conversion during the manufacturing process due to the application of the emulsion before steaming, and also caused by insufficient ability for being rendered to the boiled or cooked state within a short period of time. These facts lead to lowering of the sense, feel and taste when the cooked noodles are eaten, which represent lowering of the value as product dry noodles and leaves much to be improved.
As a means of solving those problems stated above of the prior art, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,906 a method for manufacturing non-fried dry instant cooking noodles, which comprises application of an aqueous emulsion of edible oil to the surfaces of shaped elongated raw pieces of noodles, and then subjecting these noodles to steaming to thereby prevent mutual sticking of the individual noodles and to accelerate .alpha.-conversion of the starch components during a short period of time, and thereafter dehydrating and evaporating the moisture contained in the noodles in a drying step to expand the surfaces of the noodles to make these surfaces porous and to produce very fine pores communicating with the inner portions or texture of the noodles, whereby the product dry noodles can be rendered to the boiled or cooked state in a short period of time, and the cooked noodles give satisfactory sense, feel and taste when eaten. According to this known technique, there can be provided non-fried instant cooking dry noodles which are lower in the number of individual noodles sticking to each other. Since, however, an aqueous emulsion of edible oil is applied to the surfaces of the shaped noodles during the course of manufacture, there cannot be avoided degradation of the quality of the product dry noodles with lapse of time, though the speed of degradation of quality is improved when compared with that of fried dry noodles. As such, there has been a demand for the development of technique which satisfies this requirement of long stable durability of quality of the product, resisting a long period of storage.
The inventors, therefore, have made strenuous research and many experiments to improve the foregoing problems encountered in the prior art, and as a result they have worked out the present invention based on the discovery that, by first forming a mixture of grain flour consisting mainly of wheat flour and water, then rolling this mixture material into a long web of an appropriate thickness containing at least 25% by weight of water, or by forming said mixture and subjecting same to extrusion under pressure to provide a web of raw noodle material having the same water content as that mentioned above, thereafter either subjecting the web directly to steaming for .alpha.-conversion of the starch components, or first applying water to the surfaces of the raw web and then steaming the resulting web for .alpha.-conversion, thereafter subjecting the resulting web to a preliminary drying to regulate the water content to 15-35% by weight, then cutting the web into shaped individual noodles, and lastly drying them to produce the final dry product. According to the method of the present invention, there are provided the advantages that, even when the web of raw material become swollen as .alpha.-conversion progresses during the steaming step, there arises no sticking of the noodle material as encountered in the prior art, owing to the fact that the web has not been shaped into individual cord-like pieces of noodle, and thus this .alpha.-conversion can progress uniformly throughout the web, and there develop no blister-like formation in the surfaces of the web. Besides, after said steaming step, the web is subjected to a preliminary drying, so that the web can be cut into individual pieces of noodle without the accompaniment of sticking to the cutter blade and without requiring such troublesome step of releasing the entangled pieces of noodles as has been needed in the prior art. Thus, there can be obtained the product dry noodles having a uniform breadth or size. These shaped noodles are further subjected to drying, by which step is produced porous texture which is peculiar to dry noodles intended for instant cooking. The product noodles of the present invention which are thus produced can be rendered quickly to the edible cooked or boiled state by immersion in hot water during a very short period of time, giving such satisfactory sense, taste and feel as expected of cooked noodles, and have an outstanding durability during storage for an extended length of time.
Briefly speaking, the present invention provides non-fried, oil free instant cooking dry noodles and a method therefor which comprises, after application of water, as required depending on cases, to the surfaces of a web of raw noodle material which already contains at least 25% by weight of water, the web is subjected to steaming, and thereafter the web is subjected to a preliminary drying step to reduce the water content of the web to 15-35% by weight, and then cutting the web into noodle shape, and then drying the resulting noodles.
Here, the technique disclosed in said U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,906 will be compared with the technique of the present invention. The feature of this U.S. Patent is found in the process of a series of steps that, after formation of individual pieces of raw noodles, an aqueous emulsion of edible oil is applied to the surfaces of these noodles, and then they are steamed, and thereafter the resulting noodles are dried. By the application of an aqueous emulsion of edible oil to the surfaces of the shaped noodles prior to being steamed, the occurrence of mutual sticking of individual noodles is eliminated. However, the edible oil employed in the aqueous emulsion which is applied to the surfaces of raw noodles causes progressive degradation of quality of the noodles as time passes. Thus, a solution of this problem has been desired. In good contrast thereto, the feature of the present invention lies in that said application of such edible oil to the surfaces of raw noodles is entirely omitted to thereby eliminate the cause for quality degradation with time, and that, in place of this omission of emulsion-applying step, the order of manufacturing steps is changed. That is, the web of raw noodle material prior to being shaped into individual pieces of noodles is subjected to steaming, and then same is subjected to a preliminary drying to supress the occurrence of stickiness in the noodle material of the web, and thereafter the resulting web is cut to be shaped appropriately into individual pieces of noodle. Whereby, the troubles encountered in the prior art which are represented by the mutual sticking of these noodles and also by the sticking of the raw noodles to the cutter blade are prevented. Thus, the product which is obtained according to the present invention is superior in durability during storage for an extended period of time.